FundRazr is an award-winning online fundraising platform that has helped thousands of people and organizations raise money for causes they care about. FundRazr offers a fundraising platform that is easy to use, inexpensive and readily accessible. FundRazr’s online fundraising platform has helped raise over $115 million for over 140,000 campaigns in dozens of countries around the world. For more information, visit the company's website at www.fundrazr.com.
FrontFundr connects investors and entrepreneurs. Investing in young companies has been limited to angel investors, venture capital firms and wealthy individuals. These investors represent only a fraction of the larger investor community who are excited and have the financial means to participate in growing new companies. FrontFundr uses today’s technology to enable entrepreneurs to raise money from a much larger investor community. This is an opportunity for seasoned investors and the wider public to come together to directly drive innovation and entrepreneurship. With FrontFundr, both experienced and regular investors can exercise positive influence on businesses they would like to see succeed. For more information, visit the company's website at www.frontfundr.com.
Bennett Milner Williams Consulting Ltd. is led by Principal, Victoria Bennett.
With over twenty years’ experience in business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing in Europe and North America, Victoria has overseen sales, operations, finance, and HR in a spectrum of industries. Victoria has a record of strong commercial success working with major brands including Procter & Gamble, TD Bank, Mars, Tervita, BP, Gushor (a Schlumberger company), ENMAX, and Axia NetMedia.
9. VISITORS BY AGE GROUP
29%
27%
20%
12%
7%
5%
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
18-24
Key takeaways:
• Digital Natives (ages 25 to 54)
made up 76% of visitors
• Traditional angels age brackets
(55+) were only 19% of visitors
14. THE COMPANY
• Plant-based butcher shop. Offers healthy planet-friendly
meat alternatives that are accessible to omnivores,
vegetarians and vegans.
• First vegan butcher shop on the west coast of Canada;
one of two vegan butcher shops in Canada
15. WHAT’S THE DEAL?
• Looking for $500,000 to help scale up the business and increase production capacity
• Offering a convertible note on a 3 year term with 6% interest, a 15% discount and a 7.5M
cap.
• $250 minimum investment
16. MILESTONES.
• September 10, 2018: launch
• September 19: hit $100,000 goal
• October 2: $250,000
• October 15: 100 investors
• November 27: $408,250 and 157 investors
• November 29: Dragon’s Den
• December 15: Close.
18. THE RESULT (CONTINUED)
• Raised $408,250 from 157 investors (Avg. investment $2,600)
• The majority has come in on the back of local and retail investors
• 74% of the raise consists of investments less than $10,000
• 12,545 unique visitors and 30,263 page views resulted in $408,250 from 157 investors
19. WHAT DID IT TAKE TO EXECUTETHIS SUCCESSFUL
INVESTMENT CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN?
Agenda:
1. Gain traction and recognition
2. Build an active, engaged community of supporters
3. Leverage the community
4. Appeal to different investors motivations
20. 1. GAIN TRACTION AND RECOGNITION
• Opened first vegan butcher shop on the west coast of Canada. Over 1,000 visitors on day 1.
• Over 1 million dollars in revenue in just over a year of operation with healthy profit margins.
Mainly business-to-consumer (butcher shop, farmers markets, e-commerce, pop-ups).
• Unable to produce enough product to meet demand: Regularly sells out at markets and events;
Waiting list of over 100 restaurants and stores.
• Wrapped up successful Kickstarter campaign raising $64,000 from 700 different backers.
21. 2. BUILD ACTIVE, ENGAGED COMMUNITY OF
SUPPORTERS
• High in demand product in BC:
• 13% is vegetarian;
• 25% cuts down on meat consumption; and
• 33% purchases plant based meats.
• However, still not a lot of options out there: only 2 vegan butcher shops in Canada and 6
in the United States.
• As one of the few good options out there,TheVery Good Butcher’s story resonates with
a lot of people who help them to share the message and spread the word.
23. 3. LEVERAGE THE COMMUNITY
• Email newsletters
• Est. 5,000 recipients, Avg. open rate 40%, Avg. click-through rate 19%
• Facebook posts
• Avg. 12,000 views, Avg. click-through rate 7%
24. 4.APPEAL TO DIFFERENT INVESTOR MOTIVATIONS
• Invest to receive a return on investment (27% of the investments were $5,000 or more)
• Invest to make an environmental impact and ethical reasons to invest
• Local: TheVery Good Butchers is local to theVancouver andVictoria markets. People like
to support local (90% of the investors is based in B.C.).The $250 minimum investment
made it accessible to people who just want to support, too (19% of the investments is
$250)
28. KEYTAKEAWAYS
• High volumes of online traffic are key. TVGB’s average click-through rate across channels
was 13%; and of the12,570 visitors, just1.25% of the visitors invested.
• Start to build an active, engaged community early on; and leverage your community
• Set a low investment minimum to enable investors of different social classes and different
objectives (impact, financial return) to participate
• Set a low minimum raise amount to hit 100% and gain “social proof”
29. KEYTAKEAWAYS (CONTINUED)
• Early stage B2C start-ups: consider a rewards or donation-based campaign to set yourself
up for success.TheVery Good Butchers’ Kickstarter campaign helped them to build their
email list; raise profile; and get their community accustomed to the idea of putting in
money online.
• Consider a more simplified offering (e.g., common shares). FrontFundr andTheVery Good
Butchers received quite a few questions about a convertible note works.
30. HOW MUCH DIDTHAT ACTUALLY COST?
• Spent less than $500,- in total to boost the raise to reach more people on social media
• Spent $0 on email marketing, as the company had built an email list on the back of its
community
• In total, the company spent ~$20,000 on the raise (legal fees, platform fees, production of
the video, graphic design, social media marketing, et cetera) before they collected their
first cheques. Note: legal fees were relatively high because of the convertible note.
31. • Strategic Marketing Firm supporting
crowdfunding campaigns
• First campaign – 6 years ago
• Constantly changing
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
35. WHY?
• In 2011, the average amount raised through
investment crowdfunding was $~112,000
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
36. WHY? • In 2017, UK’s largest platform’s average raise size was
£692,000, with the largest deal at £3.2m.
• In 2018, Canada’s largest platform’s average raise size
was $977,005
• Investment crowdfunding is trending bigger raises
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
37. WHAT ARE
VC/ANGELS
LOOKING FOR?
• Proof of market interest / reduced risk
• Social Proof
• Anonymity
• Deal flow
• Transparent communication
• Decreased time to completion
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
38. CAMPAIGNS NEEDTHE 100%TO INVEST
• Accredited investors make up 31% of
investors but 66% of the raise
• Community investors make up 69% of
investors and 33% of the raise
Challenge to the market – how to make invest crowdfunding more mainstream,
as there is significantly more money with the 97% than the 3%.
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
39. SQUAMISH CANYON
• Sensitive location
• Environmentally
• Politically
• Huge opportunity
• Needs to raise ~ $5MM for MVP
• Community to get buy in and to benefit from project
• VC/Angels to achieve the goal
Squamish Canyon addresses a critical lack of
year-round, all-weather activities for every age
group along one of Canada’s busiest tourist
corridors, the Sea to Sky highway.Working
together with the local community and local
partners, Squamish Canyon will support
economic diversity, social and environmental
sustainability, community building, and
education in Squamish, British Columbia.
Squamish Canyon - A destination waiting
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
40. VERMILLION GROWERS
• Needs to raise ~ $16.5million
• Raised to date
• Friends & Family/Accredited Investors – $3.75MM
• Debt financing $9MM
• Community Crowdfunding – Phase 1 - $250,000
• OM Crowdfunding – Phase II $3.5MM
Join Vermillion Growers to increase
Canada’s food sovereignty by
building the first large-scale tomato
greenhouse in Manitoba.
Support a company committed to
growing food, growing people and
growing community.
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding
41. Initial founder funding Community
Government Grants,
other non diluting capital VCs / Angel Investors
Integrated Anatomy of a deal
Institutional Investors
Friends and Family
Sustainable Marketing | Crowdfunding